DanceLogic Teaches Girls Dance and Computer Coding

DanceLogic Teaches Girls Dance and Computer Coding

Participants in the DanceLogic program. (Facebook)

[/media-credit] Participants in the DanceLogic program. (Facebook)

Shanel Edwards, co-instructor of danceLogic, stated that “danceLogic is helping these girls have access to the arts realm and science world as possible career paths, it is allowing them to stretch their own boundaries of what success looks like for them. ”DanceLogic, a unique S.T.E.A.M. program that combines dance and computer coding leading to the development of original choreography and performance, is continuing onto its second year. Girls ranging from the ages of 13 through 18 years participate in the program held at West Park Cultural Center in Philadelphia and learn the value of focus, dedication, and teamwork, as well as industry standard coding language.

During the dance class, led by instructors Edwards of D2D The Company and Annie Fortenberry, a performer with Ballet 180, the girls learn dance skills and movement techniques. This is followed by an hour of learning industry standard coding language under the direction of coding instructor Franklyn Athias, senior vice president of Network and Communications Engineering at Comcast. “I’m helping the kids see that someone, just like them, was able to use Science and Technology to find a very successful career,” Athias expressed in a press release.

The girls use coding to create their own choreography. “The combinations of dance and logic have good synergies. Learning something like dance requires practice, just like coding,” said Athias. “The dance is more physical, but it requires the students to try, fail, and try again. Before long, the muscle memory kicks in and the student forgets how hard it was before. Coding is really the same thing. Learning the syntax of coding is not a natural thing. Repetition is what makes you become good at it. After learning the first programming language, the students can learn other programming languages because it becomes much easier.”

“My favorite thing about the program is that the students can explore leadership roles. By building their own choreography and supporting each other in coding class, they navigate creating and sharing those creations, as well as resolving conflict to make one cohesive dance. There’s a lot of beauty and bravery in that process,” stated Fortenberry.

]The very first session of danceLogic culminated with the girls performing choreography and sharing what they learned through coding and how it has impacted their lives.

For more information, click here.

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

Birmingham City Schools Amends Dress Policy, Gives Students More Freedom

Birmingham City Schools Amends Dress Policy, Gives Students More Freedom

By Erica Wright

Birmingham City Schools students will now have more freedom to wear clothing they want during the upcoming school year, which began Aug. 6.

The Birmingham City Schools board voted to change the uniform policy for the upcoming school year. Under the new policy, effective immediately, K-12 students will have the option to continue wearing uniforms such as the solid blue, white, black and khaki shirts, pants and skirts or clothing that meets the dress code such as jeans and other items.

“Giving students choices in what they wear will free up administrator’s time that has previously been spent on enforcing the dress code policy and will give them more time for instruction . . . as well as student achievement,” said Adrienne Mitchell, Strategy and Communications Officer for BCS.

The board’s decision was influenced in part by students and parents asking to change the policy for the last few years. The BCS has required students to wear uniforms since 1996.

Though students will now have more freedom to choose, some of the policies will remain in place such as having students wear closed-toe shoes, no clothing with obscene writing and no tight fitting clothing, Mitchell said.

“This is a year of transition so families and students that choose to wear uniforms, can still wear uniforms, however families that choose to follow the dress code policy can make some choices in the clothes they wear but there are still guidelines that all students must follow,” Mitchell said.

This decision means that some families, parents, can take advantage of shopping for clothes during the Tax-Free weekend starting Friday, July 20 through Sunday, July 22.

Reaction on social media to the change has been mixed. Many have applauded the change while others expressed concern that the new policy may lead to bullying.

Mitchell said she doesn’t see that happening.

“Our administrators are extremely watchful about behaviors that occur in schools and we fully expect them to continue to enforce the rules and the guidelines in school,” Mitchell said. “We anticipate that students will take this freedom and flexibility and use it responsibly. Making choices are a part of what we’re teaching students because it’s going to be a significant thing that they are going to have to do in life.”

For more updates on the dress code and additional announcements parents can download the Birmingham City Schools app through the App store on any Apple device and on Google Play for any android device.

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

Summit Helps HBCU Students Prepare for Pursue Law School

Summit Helps HBCU Students Prepare for Pursue Law School

ATLANTA—Several hundred students from historically Black colleges and universities across the nation gathered at Emory University over the weekend to hear from experienced lawyers and current law school students about attending law school. Now in its 5th year, the annual National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo was created “to address the unique challenges and concerns that HBCU students and graduates have as they prepare to apply to law school,” says Evangeline Mitchell, the Summit’s founder. “Don’t be confused about all of the melanin in the room,” Adria Kimbrough, the Pre-Law advisor at Dillard University told the participants who gathered to hear her speak. “The practice of law continues to be the least diverse profession. It’s important that you all are here and it’s important that you affirm one another.”

Kimbrough—who attended Talladega College before earning a law degree from the University of Cincinnati—was one of 14 Black students in her law school class. Since leaving law school, Kimbrough (who is the wife of Dillard’s President Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough) has held a number of high-profile jobs practicing law in private and university settings with a particular focus on labor and employment. “Success is not always a straight shot,” she said. “There are twists and turns along the way. ”Still, she told the students that if they had the determination and passion for the law, they should persevere. “Somebody is waiting for you to offer them culturally relevant representation,” she said.

Her message resonated with Bryant Williams, 20, a junior at Alabama State University. He arrived at the Summit looking for guidance as he prepares to take the LSAT and begins the process of applying to schools.“This has been a great event,” said Williams, who has dreams of becoming a criminal defense lawyer. “I’ve gotten a lot of information and the speakers all broke down the admissions process. I feel better prepared.”

The impact of the Summit was felt by others, too. “I’ve been to a lot of law school conferences but this one is different because it’s proof that African-Americans are succeeding in the field of law,” said Donte Johnson, 21, a senior at North Carolina A&T University who attended the Summit for the second year. When he graduates in May, Johnson is going to work for two years and then he will begin the application process. Xavier Donaldson, a partner at Donaldson & Chilliest in New York encouraged the students attending the Summit to take the application process seriously.

“Please take a [LSAT] class and a practice test,” said Donaldson, adding that the LSAT and high grades remain the most important criteria for law schools. “It’s not about how smart you are but how well you prepare.”

History at Harvard: Four Black Women Head Colleges

History at Harvard: Four Black Women Head Colleges

By LaMont Jones, Diverse Education

click on image to play slideshow.

When Harvard University students arrive for classes Aug. 15, they will return to history in the making: for the first time in the Ivy League school’s history, four of its colleges will be headed simultaneously by African-American women.

Dr. Claudine Gay’s appointment in July as the first African-American and the first woman dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences followed Dr. Bridget Terry-Long’s appointment in May as the first Black woman dean of the Graduate School of Education. They join Dr. Tomiko Brown-Nagin, the first Black woman dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Dr. Michelle A. Williams, an epidemiologist and professor at the School of Public Health, who became the first Black person to head a faculty at Harvard and the first female dean of that school, according to a story in The Harvard Crimson.

Less than three years ago, not one of Harvard’s 14 schools was headed by a Black woman, according to the Crimson.

In an interview with the college newspaper, Gay said: “If my presence in this role affirms someone’s sense of belonging and ownership, the same way [former president Dr. Drew G. Faust’s] appointment affirmed my own sense of belonging, then I think that’s great. And for people who are sort of beyond our gates, if this prompts them to look again and look anew at Harvard and imagine new possibilities for themselves, I think that’s great, as well.”

The advances in diversifying the ranks of administrators have elicited praise on campus. They signal “that Harvard is getting ready for a new future for itself and for the country and for the world,” said John S. Wilson, a key leader in the university’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Dr. Danielle S. Allen – a government professor who spearheaded a Task Force on Inclusion and Belonging that issued a final report in March calling for more faculty diversity – said it’s “great to see such wonderful, talented individuals in leadership posts and to see the university diversifying its leadership ranks.”

Money makes the difference for kindergarteners in the summer

Money makes the difference for kindergarteners in the summer

By Jill Barshay, Hechinger Report

Kids arrive at school with large achievement gaps between rich and poor, and the achievement gaps grow over the summer. Now two new studies show that the summer learning gap between the lower and middle classes may be narrowing while the rich surge ahead of everyone.

A May 22, 2018, report from the National Center for Education Statistics tracked more than 18,000 kids who attended kindergarten in 2010-11 and followed up with their parents in the fall of 2011 to see how they spent their summer. It’s a nationally representative group, expressly selected to mimic the actual racial, ethnic, income and geographic diversity in the country.

By many measures, poor kids participated in fewer educationally enriching activities over the summer than middle class and wealthy kids. Only 7 percent of poor kids and 13 percent of “near” poor kids (families of four living on an income of $22,000 to $44,000 a year) went to summer camp. Roughly 40 percent of non-poor kids — middle-class and wealthy — attended summer camp. The poor were less likely to go on cultural outings. For example, only 32 percent of poor kids and 44 percent of “near” poor kids went to an art gallery, a museum or a historical site over the summer. Almost two-thirds, or 63 percent, of non-poor kids, did. Only 15 percent of poor kids attended a concert or a play. One third of non-poor kids did.

More than half of rich and middle-class parents said they read to their children every day during the summer. Fewer than 40 percent of poor kids’ parents did so.

But there were surprises too. A larger subset of poor families than non-poor families said they had their children work on math and writing activities every day. For example, one fourth of poor families said they engaged in writing activities with their kids each day. Only 12 percent of non-poor families did this.

A couple pieces of egalitarian news: three-quarters of kids played outside every day, regardless of household income. And one-third of kindergarten graduates of all income levels looked at or read books every day.

Disparities in how low, middle and high income parents invest in their children during the summer are nothing new. But it’s interesting to see how they have changed over time. The last time NCES studied how kindergarteners spent their summer, in the summer of 1999, the questions were slightly different. But it seems that low-income families were even less likely to participate in activities with their children back then. For example, only 20 percent of children from low-income families with less educated parents went to art, science or discovery museums over the summer — roughly 12 percentage points lower than in 2011. Forty-five percent of low-income children went to a zoo, aquarium or petting farm back in 1999 — roughly 9 percentage points lower than in 2011.

At first glance, it seems that low-income families are now more involved with their children and investing in them more. Perhaps the summer experience gap between low- and high-income children is narrowing. But the 2011 NCES report focused on children living in poverty and not in wealth. All the non-poor children are lumped together, be they middle, upper-middle or upper class, and their summer experiences are all averaged into one number. It doesn’t detect or highlight growing disparities among these income groups.

Sociologists, however, are finding that parental investment in their children has diverged sharply over the last 40 years with growing gaps between the middle and the upper classes. In a May 2018 paper published in the American Sociological Review, researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and Colorado State University found that the most affluent Americans are driving this difference, spending ever higher amounts of money on their children’s education and enrichment, from after-school lessons to summer camps.

They also found that this increase in parental investment in children was directly related to growing income inequality. That is, in states where income inequality grew a lot, so did disparities in parental investments. The higher the income inequality, the larger share of their income rich people spent on their children.

“Affluent parents might see rising income inequality as really making a winner-take-all economy and feel a strong push to give their kids every advantage they can,” said Daniel Schneider, professor of sociology at Berkeley, in a press release.

In other words, rising income inequality not only leaves the rich with more money to spend but also reshapes parents’ desires to invest larger portions of their money in their own children. High-income parents are not simply spending more in general but are targeting their spending toward their children.

Money doesn’t seem to be a replacement for time. Despite time-pressured lives, the sociologists found that high-income parents did not reduce the amount of time they spent together with their children.

Today’s income inequality is not only leading to unequal investment in children, but also laying a foundation for even more unequal adult lives in the future.

This story about kindergarten summer was written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

Students at NUSA Conference get crucial lesson in politics

Students at NUSA Conference get crucial lesson in politics

By Ariel Worthy

More than 100 students at the 43rd Annual Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) Conference in Birmingham on Friday created their own city where technology is paramount and littering and cyberbullying are not tolerated.

The City of Diversity – with the slogan, “Where Everybody Counts and YOU Matter” – was a “tech city” and it even came with an election season to give students a taste of politics.

Birmingham is hosting the 43rd Annual Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) Conference. The four-day event, which ends May 26, features a series of panels, workshops, and collaborative events that encourage networking, camaraderie, and idea-sharing. The theme for 2018 is “Building Tomorrow’s Community Today.”

Creating a city during the youth conference was a lot harder than imagined, said Annissa Owens, a rising junior at Shades Valley High School.

“You have to find neighborhood presidents, city councils, a mayor; you have to find transportation, how to get around,” she said.

However, Owens, 15, said she is grateful for the experience which included her role of getting people out to vote.

“[Citizens] have to get the law they want to be passed, and to do that, they have to vote for whoever they want to be mayor,” she said. “I think my part is important because if you want your voice to be heard you should go vote. So, you can’t get mad when the change you wanted didn’t happen if you don’t vote.”

DeRenn Hollman, 13, who will attend Ramsay High School in the fall, was a mayoral candidate and said his goal was to “make the city more comfortable and like easier for people.”

“I want more technology, and you won’t have to work as hard for things,” he said. “It’s a tech-heavy city, so it’s easy, but the easiest thing to do is to participate in the things the city has going on.”

Running for elected office wasn’t as easy he thought.

“Campaigning is hard because you have another candidate who is just as qualified as you,” he said. “But you also have a team behind you and people who support you and believe in you. It’s still hard to go up there and speak in front of people though.”

The candidates had two major campaign issues: cyberbullying and littering.

“You’re either for littering to be a crime or against littering to be a crime,” Owens said. “You’re either for social media to end because of cyberbullying or you’re against social media to end because of cyberbullying.”

Hollman said, “as a mayor I want some cyberbullying to stop, but I don’t think social media should have to end because of it. Social media is fun but use it responsibly.”

Campaigning taught the students some valuable lessons.

“You still have to go through a lot of different people (such as the legislative branch) and if they don’t like it, they cannot go through with it,” Hollman said. “You can’t just say ‘littering is a crime’; you have to send it to your council to approve it. If they don’t like the law they can vote against it.”

Owens said he now sees some things differently.

“Some things are not as easy as it sounds,” she said. “Like getting extra transportation is not as easy as I thought it was. Like getting a new bus. You have to go through voting and funding to get those new things.”

Danny Brister, operations manager for the City of Birmingham Mayor’s Office Division of Youth Services and co-chair for the NUSA Youth Conference, said the message for students was simple.

“We told them that we need their impact, their intelligence, we need them to engage,” Brister said. “At the age of 18 a young person can serve as neighborhood president. That’s important for them to know. As early as 16 they can vote in their neighborhood elections. We hope they gain an understanding that it takes a lot of work. We hope they leave inspired to make a change.”

Birmingham is hosting the 43rd Annual Neighborhoods USA (NUSA) Conference. The four-day event, which ends May 26, features a series of panels, workshops, and collaborative events that encourage networking, camaraderie, and idea-sharing. The theme for 2018 is “Building Tomorrow’s Community Today.”

Two Birmingham students win pitch competition on deforestation

Two Birmingham students win pitch competition on deforestation

By: Ariel Worthy

Two Birmingham city high school student-athletes recently won $500 to plant trees around the metro area.

Jordan Embry of Ramsay High School and Kobe Howard of Wenonah High School won for their presentation on the importance of mitigating deforestation in Alabama which impressed a panel of judges at the Together Assisting People (TAP) Business Pitch Competition.

“I think it’s brilliant for them to come up with a concept talking about tree deforestation,” said Chris Rogers, founder and CEO of TAP. “They want to take the (prize) money (of $500) to do that. They want to get their teammates and TAP to plant more.”

The students want to start out by planting five trees in two Birmingham neighborhoods this summer but hope to plant more.

Embry, who is a junior and a running back at Ramsay, and Howard, who is a senior with the culinary program at Wenonah, provided statistical information about deforestation in their communities.

Embry said he came up with the idea of planting trees because he wanted to do something that makes a difference.  “I feel like trees are a necessity in life,” Embry said. “They help with oxygen and it has so many benefits for everyday life. When you cut down a tree I feel like you should also replant a tree.”

Howard said he was surprised by the number of trees cut in every year.

About 3.5 billion trees are cut every year around the world including about 500,000 acres of trees a year in the United States, he said. “We don’t cut down as much as Brazil, but they also have a rainforest,” Howard said. “So we don’t have as many trees . . . but we’re still losing a lot of the benefits that trees provide us.”

Howard said he learned a lot about research while working on the project.

“If you have the right people, the right materials, the right information, you can go far and do a lot,” he said.

Embry agreed.

“I think our idea was pretty good,” he said. “We learned about creating a budget plan for the project. For silver maple seeds (to plant the trees) it’s $20 for 100 seeds. We’re not going to plant over 300 seeds or anything, but we do hope it will make a difference.”

The students said they hope their project inspires others to take notice of issues like deforestation.

“If they want to help in another area and plant trees there, they should go for it,” Embry said.

Jordan Embry presents information about deforestation to a panel of judges during Together Assisting People’s first Business Pitch event. (Provided photo)

Rogers acknowledged that the topic wasn’t one that many athletes would care about.

“You’d never think that athletes would be into that kind of stuff,” he said. “Jordan is a kid who gets it. Kobe is looking to go to the University of South Alabama and major in business, but he has dreams of being a chef. He actually caters our events. So, we’re letting him fine-tune his skills by catering our events. He’s getting the opportunity to get real-life skills and we’re putting money in his pockets.”

Other pitches as part of the competition included ways to improve customer service. Students Lee Witherspoon of Parker High School and Jayst Dorion of Spain Park High School are trying to come up with an app to improve customer service, Rogers said.

“They said they see a difference between how you’re treated at Wal-Mart and Whole Foods,” he said.

This is the first Business Pitch, but Rogers wants it to become an annual event.

“We have some . . . guys doing exceptional work,” Rogers said. “To have them . . . researching and pitching. I think long term they all won. They’ve got something invaluable.”

City School Students Display Artistic Talent

City School Students Display Artistic Talent

By Chanda Temple, Public Information Officer/Birmingham

Click to view slideshow.

Earlier this year, Mayor Randall L. Woodfin invited Birmingham City Schools’ students, children of city employees and students attending other schools in Birmingham to reflect on what inspires them about the Magic City. Students could draw anything from their favorite park or school to their community and even the mayor for the “My Birmingham. My Mayor. And Me’’ art contest.

There were more than 200 entries from grades kindergarten to 12th. Judges were impressed by the submissions, which included colorful charcoal pieces, collages, paintings, colored pencil works and even a sculpture of the mayor. On Tuesday, April 17, Woodfin recognized the first-place winners during the Birmingham City Council meeting. Woodfin congratulated each student and thanked them for showcasing what they loved about the city.

“All of these submissions show the tremendous talent of students in Birmingham. I thank each student for dedicating their time for the contest, each teacher for guiding them through the process, and every parent for supporting their child in this endeavor,’’ the mayor said.

This month’s visit to City Hall was a first for Zaiderick Hayes, a fifth grader at Avondale Elementary School. He said he got the idea to create a collage for his winning piece after doing research on the internet. Zaiderick included some of his favorite places in Birmingham and a hand-drawn image of the mayor.

“It wasn’t hard. It took two days to draw the mayor,’’ said Zaiderick, whose art work has won other awards. At Avondale Elementary, an award-winning piece he did for a different contest will be featured on the school T-shirt next year.

Said Principal Courtney Nelson: “I’m proud of Zaiderick and all of his accomplishments. He is an art legend at Avondale.’’

Art work by students receiving first, second and third place will be on display on the third floor of City Hall through April. Art work by all other students will be on display at various libraries that part of the Birmingham Public Library system. To see a list of libraries hosting the art work, please visit www.birminghamal.gov.

This contest was made possible by The Mayor’s Office; Division of Youth Services; Birmingham Museum of Art; Arlington House; Birmingham Public Library; Birmingham City Schools; Birmingham City Schools Dr. Lisa Herring and McDonald’s.

First Place Winners

K-2nd Grade

Kwabend Bangolame (Ephesus Academy/Kindergarten)

3rd – 5th Grade

Zaiderick Hayes (Avondale Elementary)

6th – 8th Grade

Jerome Ranes (Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle)

9th – 12th Grade

Cardarius Timmons (Huffman High)

Honorable Mention:

Alexis Armer  (P.D. Jackson-Olin High)

 

How Students and Teachers Partner To Make a Better Birmingham

How Students and Teachers Partner To Make a Better Birmingham

By Barnett Wright, The Birmingham Times

Click to view slideshow.

And then there were five. That’s the number of finalists remaining in the NextGen Pitch Competition, for which dozens of students and teachers pitched ideas on how to make a better Birmingham.

Earlier this year, students and teachers submitted application essays that incorporated the following statement: “Birmingham’s bright future depends on ….” A panel of judges narrowed the submissions to six who were then paired with mentors from partner companies to help perfect the ideas and possibly make them realities; that list is now down to five.

On May 3, two students and three teachers with Birmingham City Schools will compete for the grand prize of $5,000; second- and third-place prizes are $1,500 and $1,000, respectively. The finals will be held at the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama building downtown Birmingham. There will be a reception at 5 p.m. followed by presentations at 6 p.m.

Summit Media’s Chuck Faush, who created the event and has partnered with the Birmingham Education Foundation (commonly called the Ed Foundation) and BBVA Compass, said students participating in NextGen are among the most talented in the Magic City.

“Two years ago, we launched an event hoping to recognize and reward those who give of themselves to make all of our lives better,” he said. “During that event, we were amazed that one of our awardees happened to be a student. That made us all realize that we have giants among us who are young and gifted, so we created NextGen to encourage and empower our youth and those who guide them every day.”

J.W. Carpenter, executive director of the Ed Foundation, which is a key supporter of and contributor to the event, said his group knows firsthand that Birmingham City Schools students and educators have fantastic ideas.

“Everyone involved with NextGen believes that we should shine a light on these ideas,” he said. “[We] are collaborating to put the spotlight on the people we should be listening to most when it comes to education: students and teachers.”

Here’s a closer look at the two NextGen student finalists and their mentors, as well as the three teacher finalists and their partners.

Students

Kamil Goodman…NextGen Birmingham teams and group shots at Vulcan Park in Birmingham Alabama Wednesday, April 18, 2018. (The Birmingham Times / Frank Couch )

Kamil Goodman, a 16-year-old A.H. Parker High School sophomore, proposes a leadership roundtable that will include youth leaders and elected officials in Birmingham. She is partnered with Zhaundra Jones of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, “a permanent charitable endowment to drive positive change,” according to cfbham.org.

In her pitch, Goodman writes that the roundtable will serve as an opportunity for elected officials to fully engage with and hear the voices of young people in the city: “Elected officials will be able to hear how youth feel regarding violence, education issues, employment, and how to retain youth in Birmingham after graduating from high school or college.”

“Youth leaders have a voice and desire to be involved in the growth that awaits Birmingham,” she continues. “… This engagement will allow elected leaders to gain a true feeling and understanding of the youth today and create a blueprint for tomorrow.”

Jarvis Prewitt…NextGen Birmingham teams and group shots at Vulcan Park in Birmingham Alabama Wednesday, April 18, 2018. (The Birmingham Times / Frank Couch )

Jarvis Prewitt, a 16-year-old Huffman High School junior, said he’d like to implement a “Makerspace” program in all 43 Birmingham City Schools. He is partnered with Forté of the Ed Foundation, which is “driven by an urgency to help … students reach their potential,” according to edbirmingham.org.

Prewitt writes, “A Makerspace is collaborative learning environment where students and its users utilize technology to invent, experiment, and explore, while being challenged to be creative and think outside of the box while using STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). [It] … would serve as a virtual classroom where educators take the curriculum or a teacher-led project and utilize it in these labs. To further make the schools more inviting to parents, schools would partner with businesses that specialize in STEM to provide training in the parent-resource center.”

Teachers

Shauntae Lockett Lewis…NextGen Birmingham teams and group shots at Vulcan Park in Birmingham Alabama Wednesday, April 18, 2018. (The Birmingham Times / Frank Couch )

Shauntae Lockett Lewis, a physical education teacher at Minor Elementary School, would like to see a recruitment service for non-revenue-generating sports. She is partnered with Walter Body of the Coca-Cola Bottling Co. United Inc., which “proudly support[s] many civic and charitable organizations serving [Birmingham’s] communities,” according to cocacolaunited.com.

“Everyone is looking for the next LeBron James, but your typical volleyball, soccer, or track-and-field athletes are not getting these looks,” Lockett Lewis writes. “If we offered a process beginning in 9th grade assisting students and parents with the process, we would see more of our non-revenue sports getting into college.”

Christina Sellers…NextGen Birmingham teams and group shots at Vulcan Park in Birmingham Alabama Wednesday, April 18, 2018. (The Birmingham Times / Frank Couch )

Christina Sellers, a kindergarten teacher at Huffman Academy, proposes a Genius MAP nonprofit organization that prepares and pairs students with the college or university of their choice “through mastery, autonomy, and purpose.” She is partnered with Caitlyn Burchfield of Butler Snow Law Office, “among the best nationwide in service—in anticipating needs, in a commitment to help …,” according to butlersnow.com.

“Our mission is anchored in belief,” Sellers writes. “At its heart, our program is sustained by the belief that our expectations and how students perform are positively correlated.”

“Students and parents will meet with a MAP guide every nine weeks to select actionable items that have been made available through partnerships with schools, local organizations, universities, and stakeholders to add to their current MAP module for completion. … Once items have been added to a student’s MAP module, students, teachers, and parents will receive a physical document and MAP legend detailing each activity and opportunity with relevant information, dates, and instructions.”

Kaleena Watts…NextGen Birmingham teams and group shots at Vulcan Park in Birmingham Alabama Wednesday, April 18, 2018. (The Birmingham Times / Frank Couch )

Kaleena Watts, who teaches American literature in A.H. Parker High School’s English Department, has proposed a districtwide student news outlet created for students by students. She is partnered with Valeria Walton Cornner of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, “a private, nonprofit organization … that works to attract, retain, and grow jobs in Alabama, while encouraging innovation,” according to edpa.org.

This effort is needed in today’s current political, socioeconomic, and educational climate, Watts writes: “With less than 20 percent of the students in our district reading at or above proficiency level, the student news will serve as a new resource to engage young readers, building better reading skills and habits. The platform … will allow students across the seven high schools … to collaborate in a way that models global business practices.”

For more information, visit www.nextgenbham.com

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell Statement on Huffman High School Shooting

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell Statement on Huffman High School Shooting

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, two students at Birmingham’s Huffman High School were victims of gun violence, one of whom was killed. Victims were male and female, both 17. Birmingham police are conducting an active investigation of the shooting.

Congresswoman Terri A. Sewell (D-AL) releases the following statement:

“My heart is breaking for those hurt and killed in the shooting at Huffman High School.” said Rep. Terri Sewell. “I cannot imagine the grief of the parents who lost their little girl today to gun violence. She was a part of our community’s future. Tonight, my prayers are with her, the other victim, and their families.”

“We have a responsibility to protect our schools from gun violence, accidental or otherwise. Every year more students and teachers, sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters are killed in school shootings – we need to do everything in our power to make this incident the last. We cannot settle for symbolic gestures in Congress when our children’s lives are at stake.”